For an Ontario bride-to-be, the Canada Publish strike means no marriage ceremony flowers on her massive day.
Katherine Edwards, a resident of Midland, Ont., is ready to get married on Dec. 7, however could have to take action with out the primary decor she’d deliberate for her marriage ceremony. That is as a result of the substitute flowers she ordered are caught within the mail because of the nationwide postal strike.
Some 55,000 postal staff, represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Staff (CUPW), have been on strike since Nov. 15. The union has mentioned it’s asking for truthful wages, improved working circumstances, the correct to retire with dignity, and enlargement of companies on the submit workplace.
In an interview on Friday, Edwards mentioned she ordered the flowers from a Virginia-based vendor on the e-commerce platform Etsy months in the past.
“They had been those my mother had picked out earlier than she handed away so that they had been crucial to me. That is why I had ordered them so quickly,” Edwards mentioned.
“It was my method of getting her there with me.”
The flowers had been because of arrive on Nov. 13 earlier than the strike began, Edwards mentioned. They seem to have been despatched to a Canada Publish processing facility in Barrie however haven’t moved since, she added.
Edwards mentioned she works in Barrie and her office is a five-minute drive from the ability, however she has been instructed she can not decide them up. If the flowers are delivered after the strike ends, they are going to be of no use, she mentioned.
Edwards mentioned she ordered these flowers from a Virginia-based vendor on the e-commerce platform Etsy months in the past. Her mother helped select the flowers earlier than she died, she mentioned. (Etsy/LushDesignFlowers)
Edwards instructed Ontario Chronicle she contacted Canada Publish on Instagram chat, however was instructed it could not do something for her and it ended the chat. She mentioned she went to a Canada Publish outlet in a Buyers Drug Mart, however was once more instructed that nothing could possibly be finished.
Edwards mentioned she has referred to as Canada Publish buyer relations repeatedly to attempt to get her flowers however to no avail. She mentioned she’s been instructed that parcels should be sorted earlier than they’re delivered. Now, whoever solutions simply hangs up on her, she mentioned.
She was additionally instructed there are not any pickup areas accessible, she mentioned.
‘We did what we needed to do’: staff’ union
Mark Lubinski, president of CUPW’s Toronto native, mentioned the union had no alternative however to strike.
Lubinski mentioned whereas persons are ready for necessary parcels that include things like passports or marriage ceremony flowers, union members are combating for job safety and truthful wages. He mentioned members want a dwelling wage and reside paycheque to paycheque.
“We’re very empathetic to our prospects which have mail caught within the postal system, but it surely’s one thing that Canada Publish is accountable for,” he mentioned.
Canada Publish staff maintain a rally at a Scarborough mail facility on Nov. 25, 2024. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Lubinski mentioned Canada Publish will not be negotiating on the bargaining desk.
“We belong to a union and we had the correct to strike and we went on strike. We got no alternative,” he mentioned. “We did what we needed to do.”
He added that choosing up a parcel at a processing facility would contain crossing the picket line and it is one thing that’s not allowed. Canada Publish itself has shut down operations, he mentioned.
“It is simply not attainable to go to your postal station, your postal plant, to select up the mail. There is no one inside there.”
Canada Publish says it ‘sympathizes’ with state of affairs
Valérie Chartrand, spokesperson for Canada Publish, mentioned in an e mail on Friday that the company understands Edwards’s plight.
“This can be a troublesome state of affairs and we sympathize, however sadly CUPW’s resolution to launch a nationwide strike means we’re not capable of course of or ship objects,” Chartrand mentioned.
Any mail and parcels have been “secured” and can be delivered on a “first-in, first-out” foundation when operations resume, she added.
“Nevertheless, the nationwide strike will proceed to affect service to Canadians properly after the strike exercise ends.”
Chartrand mentioned the company is “contemplating its choices to maneuver negotiations ahead with higher urgency and stays dedicated to negotiating new collective agreements.”
In the meantime, Edwards says whereas the dearth of flowers will not wreck her marriage ceremony, they had been going to be a giant a part of it.
“I am not going to have my bouquet. My soon-to-be husband will not be going to have his boutonniere,” she mentioned.
“I get that they’re a company and I am only one particular person, however you’d assume they might have somewhat coronary heart and attempt to at the least assist.”
